Overall, CollageIt is a tidy piece of software that does exactly as advertised, offering quick and easy collage creation on the Mac to supplement the many features of iPhoto. CollageIt 3 Lite is an easy-to-use and automatic app that helps create eye-catching photo collages on Mac OS X. It was designed to give everyone an opportunity to brighten up one’s photo collection, and in a few seconds, a set of photos will be turned into an impressive array of collages. With CollageIt 3 Lite, collage creation is effortless.
Collage makers have recently become very popular. There are enough online collage creators, take Photovisi, for example, and desktop applications to organize your pictures into a wonderful mess. Today I suggest that we have a look at one tool that can be installed on your computer and can be used even without the Internet access.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – as Leonardo da Vinci said. I would apply these words to the CollageIt application too, a free version of the program cab be downloaded at the official CollageIt site . Since I mentioned the artist’s words, let’s make an artistic review of the program.
Visual Impression
The user interface is really nice and clear. You won’t get lost and actually one can see that the app developers have worked a lot on the visual counterpart of the application.
Thus, you can:
Change the program skin (4 variants hide under File -> Skin). I chose the black one.
Find the most needed functions duplicated by the appropriate buttons in the interface. Which is time-saving, I find. Moreover, the buttons are equipped with the icons, so there’s no way for visual preceptors to miss the necessary button.
Skip the upper menu, since all the necessary functions are compactly arranged in the main editing window.
Technical Approach
Free Collage Maker For Mac
As they say, the devil is in the detail. And the details hide under two tabs of the side panel, buttons that I’ve already mentioned, and links that we’ll discuss later.
These are only some of the features that CollageIt offers. I recommend you to check them yourself.
Templates. This is the first thing you see when you open the program. Here you find templates for scrapbooks, photo albums, posters…
Number of sizes. This is what really impresses in the free CollageIt version! Click the Page Setup button, select the Collage Size group and expand the Customize drop-down menu. Welcome!
You are also able to play with the background color and patterns. Just click on the Background button.
I would like to draw your attention to the following fact – CollageIt is one of the speediest apps I have ever tested. I changed the number of photos on the template and the template preview reflected the changes flash-like!
What I also consider as the program plus is that the developers have published a series of tutorials on the website.
And the last but not the least. CollageIt has a Mac version! Which most of the free desktop image editor can’t boast.
Emotional Impact
To tell the truth, most of the features that I mentioned above are the standard ones that any collage maker has. But CollageIt developers have managed to pack these features really nicely and I value it! Though, there is a fly in the ointment. The next paragraph is dedicated to it.
Criticism
First, a disclaimer: in this post, I’m talking about the free CollageIt version and all the drawbacks that I, as a user, noticed might be eliminated in the paid version that I didn’t test on purpose. Ready, set, go:
Image editing features are almost absent. For example, there is no possibility to crop a picture or adjust an image inside the frame.
The number of templates is also not enough. For reference, PhotoScape has over 100 page templates.
I finished my work, closed the program and opened it the next day, chose another template… and got a template with the background and page orientation that I had chosen the previous day. Well, I didn’t like it.
So, I feel confused. On the one hand, there’s plenty of tools to make a masterpiece. On the other hand, there are several drawbacks that spoil everything.
Ray of Light
Still, I stay positive. Even with the free version, you can do a lot. For example, export your artwork to your computer of share it on Facebook or Flickr roght from the program interface. And, yes, the appropriate links are placed in the main window.
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CollageIt Editor's Review
CollageIt is a small piece of software designed to create great looking picture collages in less than a minute. It's so fast due to the fact that the photos are intelligently placed on the layout and the only thing you'll have to do is to follow three easy steps. Add your favorite pictures into the software, set some parameters for them (if you like) and preview the way your collage is going to look and in the end, save your collage in one of the supported file formats (jpg, png, bmp, etc.). The interface is very simple and it has three main panels. The left one, where you add and see the thumbnail of your photos, the middle panel where you can see the preview of your photo collage, and the right one is the settings panel where you can customize the way your collage is going to look like. In here you can enhance the collage with various options for layout (space, margins, rotation, sparse) but also applying effects as 'shadow' and 'frame'. The complexity of your collage is up to you, using just a couple of photos or up to 100 photos. Moreover, you can change the background of your collage using an image or by filling it with solid color or gradient. You can also change the collage size, manually, or picking one of the predefined size (A4, A3, 1024x768, etc.). In case you had set a layout that you like, you can save it and use it later. Pluses: Fast and easy to use; cool looking output; it's free.
Drawbacks / flaws:
Collageit Pro
You can't modify the shape of your collage. In conclusion: A really nice piece of software that works as a charm.